Fuzzy Defining

Updated July 23, 2002 12:01 a.m. ET

I'm disappointed that someone of Arthur B. Laffer's stature would define "economic profits" in such a careless manner ("A Buying Opportunity," July 16).

Any basic economics textbook incorporates the notion of opportunity cost -- pure economic profits being equal to accounting profits less these implicit costs. The classical example of an opportunity cost is forgone income that an entrepreneur would earn from an...